There is a latest buzz in the social media that Facebook is preparing to launch skype powered calls, well this is true but the actually fact is how quickly we tend to forget things. In 2007, My Space which has lost its significance due to the emergence of Facebook, Orkut and other social networking sites was the first to introduce video calls powered by Skype for member to member calling.  The VoIP deal was inked 4 years ago before Facebook.

In the year 2004 My Space also had an option of face to face video chat. But tidbit of fact is that My Space had a feature where the registered members could use Skype just by clicking a single button, unlike Facebook which has a video functionality.  In 2007 Skype was owned by Ebay and later on it was taken over by Microsoft.

The VoIP service was available in around twenty countries since the month of November in the year 2007. There was no charge for any standard PC to PC calls but those who needed the premium facilities like voicemail, calls to phones from PC, call forwarding and others had to shell out some fees from their pocket.

Even after the uncovering of this truth, it doesn’t seem that Facebook is concerned or bothered about it and one of the very strong reasons for that is Facebook has more than 765 million users round the globe. Also no one would be bothered of the late release of the Facebook new video chat facility in collaboration with Skype, provided that they are able to get in touch with their friends and relatives around the world.

It’s time to just wait and watch how the new video functionality of Facebook would perform.

The nature of business is to grow and stay one step ahead of the rest. No matter what business you run there is always going to be another company who will try to move you over. Innovation and competition are the two main factors that drive the market in this era of social media interaction. Even with competition from one of the biggest names online you can be sure Facebook is ready and willing to defend its territory.

Many companies have tried to find a spot in the social media debate but the mountain named Facebook has shown that it is too large to climb and too wide to go around. The well equipped team of people at Facebook ensure that competitors will have to work hard in order to move a giant that never sleeps. Google is using the media to build anticipation as a way to win over social media users but Facebook is planning to match them with the use of technology and a experience. While some people are looking forward to the newest thing, Facebook has shown the competition that they are in the business of providing you with the newest thing first.

If you thought Facebook was going to roll over and leave its top spot open for Google+ to move in, think again. Microsoft recently purchased Skype for a whopping $8.5 billion in cash and now Facebook has developed a partnership with Skype. Microsoft and companies associating with it, have always had a strong influence and major say in the direction of this digital era. The latest move in a series of power plays from Facebook has to do with perfecting the contacts, chat and instant message option between users. Facebooks relationship with Skype will also allow users to post and like things on Facebook directly from Skype.

The ability to deliver video chat through Skype is another feature that will light up the eyes of current Facebook users. It works great for marketing because it gives Facebook users something to be excited about right before the launch of Google+. The technology developed through this partnership could possibly stop Facebooks newest enemy before it even gets started. Facebook currently has over 700 million users and Skype has 170 million users. Analyst are not sure but they expect Skype users to become the newest members of Facebook after word spreads of this partnership and its new features.

Coca-Cola is so famous, and infamous, that it’s a currency in at least one country. There are very few people on the planet left that are not familiar with the brand, and yet the company feels compelled to establish its brand on social media channels. Coca-Cola seems to understand something that struggling small business owners don’t:  Social media marketing is powerful, and you can generate more sales if you know how to use it.

Coca-Cola’s Social Media Marketing Steps

Coca-Cola uses a four-step process for social media marketing:

• Reviewing: See what the chatter is about your brand
• Responding: Use blogging and micro-blogging to answer questions or comment on the chatter
• Recording : Generate content that’s informative and helpful to social media users
• Redirecting: Direct web traffic back to your website

It’s simple really, which is true to form for Coca-Cola’s brand identity strategies. If you can implement these steps successfully as a small business owner, you’ll boost your sales as well.

Examples of Applying Social Media Marketing Steps

Let’s look at some ways to apply the steps to a new entrepreneur or veteran business owner new to Internet marketing.

• Reviewing: What are users saying about my competitors? My industry?
• Responding: How can I establish myself as the “go-to” entrepreneur by addressing comments and answering questions? (Comment on industry, but not competitors.)
• Recording: What content on my website can I share with social media users? What content exists on the Internet can I share with users, that will help them and establish my leadership at the same time?
• Redirecting: What pages on my website should I direct them to?

There’s no need to get bogged down in social media marketing when you use this four-step process. Follow Coca-Cola’s lead on this one.

It’s not enough to engage in social media marketing; you have to measure the results. That’s the only way to know whether it’s working for your business. You’ll also know where and how to make improvements if certain aspects of your marketing strategies aren’t working.

Criteria for Measuring Results

Measure the results of your social media marketing, using the following criteria:

• Response rates
• Click-throughs
• Requests for information
• Lead generation
• Return on investment
• Engagement with web content
• Rising sales

Create a chart on paper, use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or create tables in your word processor to track the results in each of these categories. Record results on a daily basis. For example, if you write a blog post and include a link to an affiliate product, write down the number of clicks under “click-throughs.”

Additional Criteria

Add to the list based on specific measurements that you want to track. For example, if you have a blog on your website, you might want to track the number of links to the blog. Simply add “Links to Post” on the charts that you create. The easiest way to generate a list of additional criteria is to write down every marketing task you do on the web, and determine criteria to measure the result.

Review your recordkeeping on a monthly basis to see what’s working and what’s not based on the results. Stay with the forms of social media marketing that show potential or the ones that yield good results.

Many Microsoft Windows 7 users have started to notice a decline in their batteries longevity.  At first they were confused thinking it was the BIOS drivers that needed to be upgraded, but then began to notice that others who installed Microsoft Windows 7 had the same problem. 

The problem is not prone to desktops, but laptops and notebooks as well.  Even a brand new battery does not stand a chance with Windows 7 operating system.

There may be a class action suit taking place soon so be on the lookout if you have encountered this problem already.  Be sure to take necessary precautions, like making sure it is not your computer causing the problems.  Take your computer down to your local shop to get it inspected to see what the culprit is.  More than likely, it will be windows 7.

It has taken quite a while, but finally the two search giants, Yahoo and Microsoft are partnering together in hopes of creating a mega search engine superior to that of the current market leader, Google. This is a 10 year deal in which Microsoft will have access to Yahoo search technologies, to integrate into their current search engine. The companies will use Bing as the main search engine algorithm to display search results. The paid advertising will also be merged, yet the companies will remain separate entities.

Now that the deal is done, here’s what Steve Ballmer has to say about the impact of it, “Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company,” said Ballmer. “Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.”

Microsoft will compensate Yahoo by offering a revenue sharing agreement. This is a tricky deal that may cause some havoc to the Google team. Yahoo and Microsoft believe that this partnership will bring in an additional $275 million dollars to each company.

Microsoft has recently released its brand new search engine in hopes f competing with the monster, Google. There has been major TV advertising and marketing in place to get people interested, but will it be enough? Currently there is the new screen interface that is not as simple as Google, but not as cluttered as Yahoo. Bing will be a hybrid of the two dominant search engines in hopes of obtaining a large market share.

There are tons of informative articles on the web about SEO and Microsoft’s new decision, not search, engine.